


Sunrise, Sunset and the Scamanders

by Indigo55



Category: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Movies)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-04
Updated: 2018-08-04
Packaged: 2019-06-21 17:55:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,264
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15563283
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Indigo55/pseuds/Indigo55
Summary: When soulmates marry, they know how to weather changes in life together





	Sunrise, Sunset and the Scamanders

After all the organization, hard work, tension, occasional confusion and occasional tears, the wedding had gone off as smooth as demiguise silk. Newton and Porpentina Scamander (as the invitations read; in fact all of their names had been used) were at last turning in after a long day, the first night of their lives with the presence of a child-in-law in their family.

Sitting on the edge of his familiar and beckoning marital bed while buttoning his pajama top, Newt felt contentment, relief, and regret. More than a little regret, if he was being honest with himself. His firstborn was married! He knew the young couple was mad for each other, it was an excellent match, and he certainly couldn't expect to keep his children to himself forever…yet, a sliver of him wanted to do just that. Maybe more than a sliver. He and Tina, then the children as they came, had created for him the heart of a wonderful warm safe place, of a kind he had never known. Including his sister-in-law, her husband, and their brood, they made the only group of people in the world in whose company he felt as relaxed, as secure, as he did with creatures. 

Perhaps, he intuited, it wasn't just the sense of loss over his son, now at a slight remove from the family hearth, gone to found his own. It also meant he was going to have to make kith into kin, to be welcoming to a stranger, to accept into his sheltering circle someone not of his blood or of his personal choice. The young woman in question was in his sincere opinion absolutely delightful, and his son had plainly known how to pick a mate well. _Glad we managed to teach him something!_ But she was still… _new_. A largely unknown quantity that now, he felt, had access to his innermost sanctum.

And he wasn't even bringing her family, _the in-laws,_ into the mix yet…

This affinity business was stressful. _If only we were all, oh, I don't know, knarls or something, I wouldn't have all this bother._

"Sweetheart?" said the well-known, well-loved voice behind him. A hand was laid on his shoulder; he turned his head towards it and saw the engagement and wedding bands on the slender ring finger. He had purchased those rings 24 years ago, at a time of terrible danger and uncertainty; not at all sure if he and she would survive long enough to actually marry, let alone become parents. Yet they had…and he then had the remarkable sensation of his life folding in on itself, focusing on the hand; the rings; the bed he sat on, the very bed in which they had got the young wizard with the shining face he'd watched stand before the altar that day, the very bed in which that son had come into the world nine months later. How he had rejoiced that day; his elation had known no bounds. Nor his awe. He didn't come down from the clouds for months…in fact, he has never been the same since. 

"I'm feeling sad, too," his wife told him, arms slipping around him from behind as she knelt on that wonderful, fruitful bed of theirs. 

"Am I obvious? Love, I'm sorry, it's been such a splendid day, and here I am moping about – eh?" It registered with him what she had said.

"It's _sad,_ Newt. Our eldest is all grown up. Our Aidan's found himself a wife. Nothing will be the same again."

He thought he could hear tears beginning to brush her voice. "Come here, Tina," he said in his gentle but brisk tone, the one he used on sulking bowtruckles, as he turned and took her into his arms. He heard her huff slightly ( _Using that tone on me?!_ ), then she relaxed into the embrace. 

"I know, you're right," he said quietly into her ear. "And this is only the first time we're going thru this. I don't fancy it will get any easier when it's the others' turns."

"It'll be worse," she sighed into his ear. "Why do they have to grow up? Why can't they just stay babies, or little, so we don't have to let them go?"

Her expression of this patently irrational sentiment made for a clash in his heart. He felt his guilt sharpen, while on the contrary being in complete accord with her. Guilt, for wanting to possess his children's lives; _children do not belong to us, they come through us, they are arrows we shoot into the future,_ he recalled hearing many years ago, and he had always tried to live up to that standard. But to have to let them go forever…to have things change…

"On the other hand," Tina said slowly, in a brighter voice, "If they didn't grow up and find partners…we would never be… _grandparents._ " The final word was said as if she'd just found a phoenix egg, alive and about to hatch, under a compost heap. 

It did the trick for Newt, too. His ears pricked up instantly. "I hadn't thought of that," he told her, and he meant it. He had been too mired in his fears of having his space invaded by _outsiders_ , too preoccupied with detesting _change._ "Tina, we _are_ going to be grandparents someday." _Oh, galloping gargoyles, if being a **father** had been fun, and mostly so far it had been terrific, then how would it be being a **grandfather?**_ "It might even be soon. Do you know if – if they want – ?"

"Well, if I'm not mistaken, I think I overheard our daughter-in-law saying something to a friend at the reception about she and Aidan 'wanting to be _young_ parents'." There was a smile in her voice now.

The vistas of his life yet to come opened before him; filled with hours of introducing yet more little ones to the wonders of his work; teaching them to tend to hatching Occamies, and hide sparkly treasure to occupy a Niffler; then, when they got bigger, to feed Mooncalves and Bowtruckles and to care for a young Unicorn's coat…

"It'll be like starting all over, Tina, but _better,_ " he sighed. 

"We'll get to spoil them, and then they'll go home," chuckled his wife. "Now I know why your folks were so happy when we began to have kids." She spared a single moment of sadness for the grandparents her children never knew, her parents, and moved on. "So maybe this cauldron has its golden lining after all?" 

"Yes, I think it might." Newt was smiling again. "There's no holding back the future, at any rate, I suppose."

The tall witch rose from the bed and yawned. "We need to hit the sack, honey, we're expected for brunch at Jacob and Queenie's tomorrow." She shook her head. "I'm bushed. It's been a day!"

"It has," her husband answered and promptly yawned himself. 

"Is everyone okay?" Tina asked, as she did every night.

"All sorted, I took care of it earlier than usual tonight, but no one's fussed. And I looked in on the kids after finishing. They're already asleep."

They climbed into their bed and, before pulling over her bed covers, Tina got her wand from the nightstand and doused all the lights. As her head hit the pillow, she heard Newt murmur, "Good night, Tina, my love," as he unerringly pecked her on the cheek. 

"G'night, Newt, sweetheart," she answered, kissing his cheek in turn. Burrowing into the bedclothes, she allowed herself a small, secret smile. It had worked.


End file.
